Top Secrets to Come Out on Top
Sunday sermon by pastor Rajesh Mathew, 6 June 2021
1 Samuel 2:6 King James Version (KJV)- And Hannah prayed and said:
“My heart rejoices in the Lord;
My [a]horn is exalted in the Lord.
[b]I smile at my enemies,
Because I rejoice in Your salvation.
God wants us to be in an enviable place and rather than a pitiable place.
- God wants us to be in a place of distinction. A man of God once said the highest God does not give birth to most low children. The highest God will only give birth to most high children. The Lord desires that you soar or rise high.
- You should soar as high as the clouds to meet the Lord In the clouds when he return in glory, to dwell with him in the heavenlies. Not just to be lifted up in earthly aspects in your life here on earth but in the life beyond.
There are secrets behind every promotion/ exaltation. Whether it is in a company, ministry, family, personally, business etc, there are secrets behind it, as per the Word of God.
- Have a dream and a vision.
Everyone had a dream and vision. Be it Joseph or Daniel or anybody else who rose high in the Bible. Ask the holy spirit to fill you with dreams and vision these coming days if you do not have one. Be filled with the spirit and attain a vision.
- They were different.
They were not like ordinary people. In their word deed and in the way they spoke. They kept their lives. They were different.
- They avoided jealousy.
1 Corinthians 3:3 King James Version (KJV)- for you are still carnal. For where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and [a]behaving like mere men?
- You are like mere men if you walk in jealousy and envy. That is our flesh acting. You need to get rid of it. How do you do that?
When you genuinely, from your heart celebrate someone else's victories without envy - you attract the same blessings towards you.
- Many people have envy deep inside but they only put on a fake appreciation outwardly. The demon of envy needs to be cast out. I celebrate every man and woman of God who have bigger churches, who have bigger gifting and greater anointings.
- Maintain the presence of God in your life.
Lord send me not where Your Presence does not go. Don’t entertain anything that will make you lose out on the presence of God in your life. Even within your homes, don’t wallow anything that can take away God’s presence from showing up. Lies, arrogance, sins, relationships out of His will etc.
- Have a sense of purpose.
God has a plan for your life, I am saying this to the ones who are older and listening to me. If you understand this purpose, you will survive this pandemic no matter how hard the situations are. Live by convictions and not conveniences. Have that conviction that there is no salvation in any other name by the revelation of the Holy spirit. Do not be worried about what people will say. All that doesn’t matter.
- Learn to let go the past to face your future.
You cannot face back and be found in the front.
- No matter how bad your past it, plead the blood of Jesus and you will be cleansed from all unrighteousness and sins. Never keep looking to the back.
- Maintain your excitement and energy level.
The Joy of the Lord is my strength. Be excited in the Lord.
- Be faithful.
- Live ready! Be ready and opportunity will come. Be always ready! Be ready even spiritually and not just outwardly.
- Like the virgins who had extra oil in their lamps, be ready. Lord whenever You come, let me be prepared. Ever present and ever ready for you Lord. Lord let me always be ready for whatever you entrust me to do.
- The price of greatness is accepting responsibilities.
- People who have made it to the top are those who have always given value to divine guidance. What is the Holy Spirit of God saying.
- Give value to divine instructions from the Lord
- Be the best in whatever you are called to do. Be excellent in whatever you undertake. Eg. When you pray, freshen yourself and then pray. Make the best omellete.
- The biggest change that has happened in my prayer life is once I started brushing, freshen up and then start praying.
- Be diligent – careful or persistent in work or effort.
- You need to understand divine appointments & placements
- Mordecai told Esther perhaps you have come for such a time as this. May be this applies even for us. When people are full of hopelessness, to offer them hope from God’s word. To pray and worship Him.
- David obeyed his father and took food for his brothers, but he recognized the opportunity and knew he was there to face Goliath.
- Joseph in the Old Testament knew he had a solution for Egypt. (He explained the dream and he also provided a solution before the famine came.) I need to make an impact and not just do what I have been asked to do, but something more. We had a plan to manage the famine.
- What is it that you have understood about yourself? Joseph understood, Esther understood, Daniel understood.
- What is the implication of your life? That is what you should receive in prayer. This is what Esau missed out. He lost it. You must understand…and how …by asking…at some point the Holy spirit will start to show. You must understand the divine appointments by asking the Lord - Holy Spirit will reveal it to you these days. Such people who knew the times, became commanders and captains. If you don’t recognize it, you will shrink and become small. You may not realize that you are shrinking immediately but at some point, you will realize. Saul did not understand what God wanted from him.
- What do I represent to this generation?
- Issachar the tribe knew the times. So, they became captains. And if you now the times and know the purpose that God has for you, you will stand with the Lord. If you do not understand, then you shrink and you become small.
- Develop yourself
Everyone of us have to keep on growing. The things that you know is what brought you up to the level that you are in currently in your life. So, if you need to grow further, then you need to know something that you did not know before.
Information is the basis for promotion.
A child who is in 1st year needs is additional information/ knowledge to qualify to second grade. Elevation is determined by your revelation.
Galatians 2:2- I went in response to a revelation and, meeting privately with those esteemed as leaders, I presented to them the gospel that I preach among the Gentiles. I wanted to be sure I was not running and had not been running my race in vain.
- I went up by a revelation. As a matter of fact, be a lifelong learner. Some of you haven’t read a book in years. If you want to go forward in life, you have to continuously learn. Commit yourself for daily growth.
- Smith Wigglesworth says- If you are in the same state spiritually for same consecutive days, you are a backslider. Do not allow me backslide Lord. Help me to learn and grow every day. God is releasing that grace upon some of you for that today.
There is a saying- “Seek not to be known but seek to know”. What you know will make you known.
- There are three departments in your life- Spirit, soul and body. You need to grow in all three realms.
➢ Body needs nutrition- what you eat drink, fitness etc.
➢ Soul needs reasoning, information, reading.
➢ Spirit needs revelation in the Holy Spirit, intercession, association (relationship with the Lord and the church and people that God has put your midst)
- Refuse to be distracted- be focused
Refuse to be distracted. If you chase two peacocks at once, both will escape. Focus on one. Distraction is the enemy of distinction. Focus on one thing.
The one thing that the devil is most scared about is a life that is focused. Devil will try to distract you. Nehemiah spent 52 days building the broken walls. There was opposition and mockery to distract him from his focus on building the wall. Sanballat and Tobiah and other were trying only for this.
A trainer in a circus distracts a lion with four legs of a stool, a trainer shows the four legs to the lion. The lion tries to focus on the four legs and it is paralysed. The paralysis of action distracts the lion.
When we were kids, we used to take a magnifying glass, and focus it on the sun and that used to result in fire. For 1000 years, the sun has been there in that forest but there was no fire but only when the intensity of the sun concentrated or focused on one point, then it results in fire. That light was focused. Many a time, forest fires many a time is caused because of this.
One thing I seek after that I may dwell in the house of the Lord. Keep your focus on the Lord.
During Jesus’ ministry for 3.5 years, he focused on the ministry and he fulfilled it. David when he faced Goliath, he focused only on the forehead. If your prayer has focus this morning, Goliath will fall down in name of Jesus. God will give you victory. Refuse to be distracted.
Your focus determines your fire and also your speed
Habakkuk 2:2- Then the Lord replied: “Write down the revelation and make it plain on tablets so that a herald[a] may run with it.
Set the vision before you, write it and run!
Mathew 6:22- The light of the body is the eye: if. therefore, thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.
- Let your eye be single. Keep your focus on Jesus. Whoever looked unto Him no one has been put to shame. Let your body be full of light. There are two ears but if you can drive them both to be focused only the voice of God, God will not bypass you. He will speak to you. Glory be unto Jesus!
Distraction comes in the form of opposition, criticism, competitiveness, strife, jealously, backbiting, backstabbing. Why? Because the devil is scared of your focus.
- People backbite you because they are running behind you! Don’t turn your face towards them. They are at the back. You run ahead if you don’t want anybody to bite your back! Don’t reply to every opposing thought and argument.
- People ask questions-‘You are so old and yet not married?’ Don’t answer them. Don’t waste your life, energy and time to reply to people who are going nowhere. Have you seen the stadiums where people watch a sport? They comment on the players saying ‘Kohli is not a good captain’, ‘Tendulkar’s batting was not right’. You pay and enter a stadium to watch people who are paid to play and yet we sit there and criticize them. You haven’t even played cricket on your video game! You comment on the way that pastors pastor the church. You have never pastored even a church of 100 flies. If any man of God tells me to do something, I will go on my knees and pray. You don’t know the anointing, battels, prayer, sacrifice that goes into the ministry and you comment on how one preaches, how one prays or how services are live streamed!
- Laser focus. If you have that, you will reach where you need to reach, focus on Jesus, His Word and what HE wants you to do.
Example: Nobody can travel nowadays. Different people are starting from different starting points from in and around Kochi, to get to the airport to go to Dubai. Will the ones who started from Vytilla or Kalamassery reach early to Dubai? No! They will all reach Dubai at the same time because they are all on the same flight no matter what the starting point of their travels are. The ones who got saved in 1990s, do not make less of the new generation of believers, we will all go to Jesus at the same time. In the same way as in the days of Noah, the eagle flew into the ark, the lion ran ahead and the tortoise slowly inched towards the ark.
However, the door of the ark wouldn’t close unless even the slowest of the creatures made it inside. God will make sure I get into the ark!
The speed of somebody else should not distract you. I will not be distracted. I will focus on MY calling!
- Focused prayer life
- If you need to go up, you need a focused prayer life.
I believe that prayer quality determines your destiny. God should be the first one that you speak to as soon as you wake up. And God should be the first one speaking to you as soon as you wake up.
- It’s not that you will hear a physical voice from God, but do something like play a tape on the Word, read the Bible and as you listen, the Spirit of God will speak to you. You will first hear His voice.
- Some of you are like the honey bees. You keep preparing honey for others but left with no honey for yourself! Paul says, poor but making rich. You need to bring every schedule in your life to align with the schedule of God.
God doesn’t plan for me to be at the ground level but to be above. That’s His plan for you. 15. Go the Extra mile
Mathew 5:41- 41 And whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him two. • Go the extra mile. Extra height is a product of extra mile.
- If you are working in one place, don’t be average, do the extra.
There is no success without excess.
- If there is success, it is because you have done something excess. A child who has done well in the exams, has studied extra. If you have not studied extra, you can become a pastor! �� • Rebekah was asked for water and she was willing to draw water for not only him but for his 10 big camels. Decide. “from this day, I will do the extra”.
- Saul went looking for his father’s donkeys. He went extra to respond to the prophet and he returned with an anointing to be the king.
- There is ordinary and extra ordinary. If there is extra, then you become extra ordinary. 1 Samuel 2:6- “The Lord kills and makes alive; He brings down to the grave and brings up. Hannah who prayed sang this. He will not only put you down, but HE will lift you up.
This morning, the Holy Spirit will lift some people who are lying low, those who are hurting, those who have seen only failures, God is lifting you up.
- Hannah is singing this song. Hannah’s husband’s name is Elkanah. It means God is purchased. Hannah’s husband was a Levite, the one called to serve God. However, there was a curse within that family. For generations, though he was a Levite, there was no body who had served God. Elkanah’s prior generations belonged to the family of Korah who was in Moses’ ministry.
1 Chronicles 6:33-38- 33 And these are the ones who [a]ministered with their sons: Of the sons of the Kohathites were Heman the singer, the son of Joel, the son of Samuel, 34 the son of Elkanah, the son of Jeroham, the son of [b]Eliel, the son of [c]Toah, 35 the son of Zuph, the son of Elkanah, the son of Mahath, the son of Amasai, 36 the son of Elkanah, the son of Joel, the son of Azariah, the son of Zephaniah, 37 the son of Tahath, the son of Assir, the son of Ebiasaph, the son of Korah, 38 the son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, the son of Israel.
Number 16:32- 2 and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, with their households and all the men with Korah, with all their goods.
Numbers 16:31- Now Korah the son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, with Dathan and Abiram the sons of Eliab, and On the son of Peleth, sons of Reuben, took men;
- There were four people were with Korah. They created a lot of unpleasantness within the Levite tribe. The earth opened and swallowed them because they stood against Moses. ➢ Korah means Ice cube. We can’t hold an ice cube in our hands for too long. It is difficult to handle these people in the ministry for too long, our hands will hurt!
➢ Dathan was against Moses too. His name means “He belongs to a fountain”. Moses, ‘I want to be next to the fountain’ they would say, there are people who always want the best place within a church. If they don’t get it, they will move on to another church whether they will be offered that place,
➢ Abira means Father of high places. They were journeying through a wilderness. In some places there are high dunes and valleys low and when the wind blows, the dunes shift. They don’t like the low places, they only like the high places. There are people who will not stand with the church or the pastor in their low times. Some people will only sit with us in the high place and not in the low places.
➢ ON- means light. They like the limelight. An opportunity to pray, minster etc. then they are on. They have the opportunity to be famous. All this is dangerous. It si dangerous in the work of God. All this will send you into destruction.
The earth swallowed them up. All the four of them and their families. However, Korah is highlighted among these four. He was the one who originated these issues. For every issue there is one who is responsible for its origin. Only the descendants of Korah were not destroyed. Others were all destroyed.
- People did not want to be associated with the descendants of Korah as they were all afraid. This (the sons of Korah) was a generation that was under the curse of Korah. Elkanah was under that generation. Hannah married him. Nobody had served the Lord under Elkanah. That is when Hannah sat in God’s presence and cried.
- 1 Samuel 1:14 says Hannah began to cry in the presence of God. Her prayer broke the power of that curse upon Elkanah’s life. She addressed Him as ‘the Lord of Hosts’. You call the Lord that which you want HIM to do. If you make him your ‘Jehoah Rapha’, He will be your healer. If you call Him ‘Jehovah Shalom’, He will your peace.
“LORD OF HOSTS- I entreat you!”, Hannah cried. Her prayer broke the power of that curse upon Elkanah’s life.
- She said, ‘Be the commander of the army and give me a descendant.’ If you are praying that sincerely this morning, focused prayer with deep intensity, it could break the power of every curse. God blessed her with a prophet Samuel. Who at the age of three listened to the voice of God. People would have said, let him grow, let him mature, let him learn first and then serve God. But God did not look at any of that. He answered Hannah’s prayer.
Place your hands on your children 2-6 years old and declare God’s anointing upon them. Samuel wasan exception. God did not look at maturity and age or capabilities. May our children be exceptions.
You need not be 30 years old to be a Levite priest.
- In this lockdown season, God is raising up children for His glory. Listen to this, children in Noah’s Ark, May the Lord raise you up! The family of Elkanah was under a curse but now they were a blessed family.
GOING UP TO A HIGHER PLACE
- Eli, the priest was asleep. The tabernacle had the outer court, the holy place and the Most Holy place. The priest slept in the Holy place. Samuel was sleeping in the outer court. Right there in the outer court, he heard the voice of God calling out to him. He ran to the Holy place and asked if it was Eli. Eli said no, and if it happened again, he suggested that Samuel should run into the Most Holy place. God called out to Samuel again and he ran past the Holy place into the Most Holy place. God spoke to Samuel from between the cherubims from the Mercy Seat.
There is going to a shift in your spiritual life.
- Those who have been lying down in the outer court just asking God for forgiveness for sin will move into the Holy place and into the Most Holy place. You will hear God’s voice and be led into the Holy Spirit into the higher level that God wants for you.
1 Samuel 3:15- 15 So Samuel lay down until [a]morning, and opened the doors of the house of the Lord. And Samuel was afraid to tell Eli the vision.
- Samuel lay until the morning and opened the door of the House of the Lord. Bible scholars believe that this was the Most Holy Place. His place shifted from the outer court to the Most Holy Place. An intimacy with God. The person that was supposed to ask forgiveness, cleanse himself, complete all requirements of the law and only then enter into the Most Holy Place (as a priest) was now opening the door to the Most Holy Place. His level had changed. That is the part that Hannah was singing in her song.
1 Samuel 2:1,6, we read that he bringeth down to the grave. Korah and Dathan went down to the deepest dark place but HE is able to bring you up to the highest levels.
- This is the top secret! No matter how low you have been pushed down. Through you, your family will rise to higher place. Come to the higher place! Let God work miracles for you in Jesus Name. “I am going to coming out of whatever swallowed me. God will bring me out”, in Jesus name. He will bring me up to the top. No matter how low we have gone, we can come out of there because of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.